On a personal note ...

For the past three months St Mark's Church has had the privilege of hosting a group of young Eritrean Christian asylum seekers. 

Each Tuesday evening the boys use our church building in order to 'do church' in their own orthodox style.

Last Sunday evening we got together with 18 of these boys and a similar number of folks from St Mark's for the purpose of relationship building over curry.

It was a great opportunity to hear more of their stories and also look at ways we can serve each other and serve Christ together.

On a personal note ...

Do you ever wonder what sort of things go on in church life? 

Well, earlier this year myself, along with seven other people, were asked by Saju to be part of the Mission Action Planning team looking at what it is that God is saying to us as a church.  In May we held a Listening Week during which, through a variety of activities, people were encouraged to listen to God and ask that same question.

After much prayer and discussion and wrestling with all the feedback we received, we finally settled on the following statement of purpose ...

Living for Jesus, Loving Gillingham,

Learning together.

My lovely friend, Jenny, made this banner for the church, and it was unveiled today. It's so beautiful.





In addition to the Purpose Statement itself we set several values that are vital to who we are as a church.

Over the coming months we're going to explore those values in greater detail and we are also currently looking at some very practical goals we would like to achieve.  Church doesn't just exist for its members; it's for its non-members too!!

American Thanksgiving

 to all our American and Canadian students :-)

Head Chef Yas takes control in the kitchen, whilst Katie and Riley and others help out.

 

We eagerly awaited our turkey roast, while Katie gave us some history and the reason why Thanksgiving is such a significant celebration.

There was opportunity for people to express the things they were thankful for ... 

 

We enjoyed an absolutely fantastic meal of roast turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, mash potato, green bean casserole, gravy and bread rolls; followed by a choice of apple, rhubarb or cherry pie with cream. 

Thanks Katie, Yas and Riley

for all the hard work you put in

to making this Thanksgiving evening

such a great success!!

Inter-Faith Week

Many thanks to Johanna in the Drill Hall Library for the invitation to hold a Chaplaincy stand during Inter-Faith Week.

Several students, including Pesila, had a go at my
faiths quiz, which proved to be quite challenging.

Whilst Areti and others

helped colour in my

inter-faith poster ...

In the midst of all that I drank coffee, gave out lollies, chocolates, inspirational bookmarks and had some very meaningful conversations about faith, life and the universe!

Sunday Lunch

Thank you Lien,
for sending me photos from Sunday. I'm glad you all had a good time with Mike & Denise :-)